Encouraging Your Teen’s Artistic Ability with Online Art Lessons
When my daughter was younger, she took an early interest in art. It was clear that she had a creative ability that I wanted to encourage. I decided to look for local art classes that she could take since my artistic abilities are sadly lacking. We were able to find some watercolor and mixed media art classes for children at the local community college. This was an ideal situation for us. She had lots of productive art time and learned so much. She also got to participate in several art shows at the local library — and someone even wanted to purchase her paintings! It was a great experience all the way around.
All of that started when she was 7 and lasted till she was 10. Then we moved to a rural area and the local classes were no longer an option. She continued to create art projects on her own, but honestly, we began to include art less and less in our homeschool. Because life is busy, her interests changed, and local options just didn’t exist. Now she’s 15 and very interested in artistic, creative design of all kinds — including digital. As in, these skills will be important to her career. I began the search for a solution so that she could continue to improve her skills and learn new techniques right from home.
Disclosure: I received free access to Sparketh in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review. I was compensated for my time to write this post.
Sparketh Online Art Lessons
Sparketh Online Art Lessons came highly recommended to me, so I was glad to give them a try. Sparketh launched in 2015 with online video art lessons for kids to adults. They cover everything from drawing to painting to tape art. There are so many choices available through Sparketh. There are even Manga drawing courses, which I know are popular with many teens.
Sparketh has an easy-to-use interface to access the video courses. It’s very clean and easy to navigate. The art lessons are divided up by newest and recommended on the home page. Each course has an introduction video along with a helpful sidebar about what materials are necessary, how many videos are included, and how long the course takes. There is no guesswork at all for the student and you know exactly how to help your teen prepare.
Another helpful feature on each course page is the difficulty level. It will let you know if the course is appropriate for the “Dabbler” or “Advanced” or somewhere in between. It also ranks it by percentage of creativity. There are basic terms and takeaways listed for the major points of the art lesson.
My daughter likes lighthouses and she likes watercolor painting, so when she saw the Lighthouse Watercolor lesson, it was her first choice. She was excited to get started with it. We keep watercolor paints and paper on hand in our usual homeschool supplies so she got right to work with the art lessons. This particular lesson was rated for Dabbler with a 70% Creative level. It has five videos for a total of just over 27 minutes.
In this course, she covered sketching and watercolor blending to get the effects she wanted for the sky and ocean. She began with the basic sketch, which the art teacher demonstrated in the first video.
When she finished her watercolor, she was inspired to do another lighthouse. This time she used chalk pastels. It was great to see her try the idea with different art media and give it her own personal touch.
My daughter is a perfectionist so she takes her time with projects. She doesn’t like to display them unless she feels confident that she’s done her best work. I think the relaxed lessons featuring interesting techniques and a wide variety of art subjects helps her to lighten up and enjoy the process. She has several more projects picked out on Sparketh to do that she’s looking forward to. Since they add new projects frequently, I don’t think she’s going to run out of ideas. This will cover our art credit going into her 10th grade year of homeschooling.
Being art-challenged myself and living in a rural area without local art class options, Sparketh is a great choice for us. My daughter is looking forward to more online art lessons and I’m happy to encourage her artistic abilities this way.
Connect with Sparketh Online Art Lessons
You can connect with Sparketh on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to learn more about the online art lessons and see examples.
Sparketh Free Trial
Good news! Sparketh offers a one-month free trial. You have nothing to lose and your kids could start enjoying art lessons today. Head over and sign up now!
~Sara
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